


The Portal Paradox

by xRaevyn



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, Temporal Paradox
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:35:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25586812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xRaevyn/pseuds/xRaevyn
Summary: An AU where, instead of breaking the world, Catra pulling the lever on the portal sends Adora back to where it all began...
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 82





	The Portal Paradox

When Catra pulled that lever, all of Adora’s life condensed into a singular, solitary second as a sweltered white enveloped the world, burning against her eyes and swallowing her mind whole. Everything fizzled out into a mute white, like the hollow chime of a cathedral bell, one long, drawn ringing into a blistering eternity. And then… silence. Nothing. Eyes open yet not. Head swollen with thoughts, yet there were no words. An entire world folded up upon the iris, and then… unfolded, uncreased. The dawn of endless daylight like the pristine pages of an unprinted, unbound book. The story, unwritten. The climax, unsung. As if the hands of this unspoken clock had been reset, replaced, renewed. This is the first second of the first day, and with it, the world snapped back into view.

The bright, unyielding blue of the sky was startling to say the least. Especially given the stark contrast it held against the Fright Zone’s incredibly meager color palette of muddied greens and sullen greys. The burning in the back of her head still lingered as Adora greeted the world and the uncanny crisp feeling the air held, like star-birth. The setting was familiar, she was at the edge of the Whispering Woods, the gnarled roots and tangled vines beckoning her forth, roping her in like the newborn fawn she felt she was in this moment. Her eyes wide with puzzlement, with fear.

“Catra!” Adora’s voice stumbled like thunder across the landscape, startling birds out of their nests, ushering the animals to migrate elsewhere. The response was an echo, her own voice muffled against the canopy, mockingly repeated back to her. She tried again.

“Catra!” 

No response but the reverberance. She took a few more pounding steps, pushing desperately at the brush, burying herself further into the forest. Again, she called out.

“Catra!”

And again, no reply. Just the stifled echo of her desperation, strangled against the branches. Adora rushed forward, barreling through the endless wood, the cyclical tilt-a-whirl churn of her stomach lurched against the repetitive landscape. Her head paralleled the pounding of her own thudding steps. Deja vu hung around her neck as she whipped her head back and forth. Was the landscape familiar because she had walked this way before, or because she had been in these woods so many times before this? Adora felt like a face card in a constantly shuffling deck with how the woods had played her. The frustration boiled through her ribs. On instinct, she reached for… nothing. There was no sword with her. No Glimmer. No Bow. No Catra. She was utterly alone. And that feeling leached at her ribcage. 

“Catra!”

Adora had no idea why she had continued to call for her. Perhaps it was because she had been the one to pull the lever, thus this orbital, vertiginous feeling was her doing. Or perhaps because she had spent so long chasing her that it had become second nature. Either way, Adora’s call was left unanswered by all but the trees that threw it back in her face… That was… until Adora heard the echo again, just as she had opened her mouth.

_ “Catraaaa!!” _ This voice was strikingly similar to Adora’s own, but its desperation held no melancholy, no malice. Perhaps this was the truth behind the Whispering Woods, the way it had contorted her voice into that of a lost child’s, unzipping her skin for all the world to see.

That thought was too disconcerting to think about, and Adora trudged onwards, marching further and further into the dense tree growth, grinding Catra’s name against the back of her throat as she continued to toss it, helplessly, into the sky. That was- until she had tripped her way into an all too familiar clearing, and saw, for the first time, herself, staring back at her with such doe-eyed perplexity.

This was  _ not _ , in fact, a mirror. Or an illusion of any sort. Adora confirmed this with the way she attempted to atomize her eyes with her fists, rubbing until she had burned stars into her eyelids. This was herself, but… younger, uncalloused by a war she had yet to fight in, or a destiny she had yet to wield.

“This is a dream,” said the Doe-eyed Adora, unblinkingly. “ _ You _ are a dream. I’ve hit my head one too many times, haven’t I?”

“I am  _ not _ a dream,” the War-torn Adora responded, brow creasing at such a ridiculous accusation. “ _ You’re _ a dream!”

“How…  _ dare _ you,” Doe-eyed Adora scoffed, crossing her arms. “I am offended that I’m being accused of being unreal by- well-  _ me _ !”

The original Adora’s eyes narrowed at this. She wanted to protest more, but arguing with herself was not going to help either of them understand what was going on. There had to have been a reasonable explanation for this…

“This is Catra’s fault.”

“Catra?” Doe-eyed Adora blinked. “What did she…” A sudden wave of realization rolled over Doe-eyed Adora’s face as she swiveled her whole body around in a panic. “Catra! Oh no! We crashed! Is she hurt?! Where is she?! We have to get back home!”

_ Crashed…? _ The recognition was duplicated onto the original Adora’s face. Suddenly, the familiarity was understood. This was her inciting incident, the moment that would forever define her destiny, and snowball into every single terrible thing that was surely to follow.

“Adora, wait!” she called out, the paradox of her own name on her tongue tasted unsavory to say the least. “Forget about going home-”

“Forget about going home? What are you even saying? Catra’s out here, alone, scared, probably hurt, and if we don’t get back to the Fright Zone soon, Shadow Weaver is going to-”

“Shadow Weaver can’t do anything if you don’t go back there. Adora, don’t you see? Your whole life, she has done nothing but tear Catra down to build you up. Don’t you think you both deserve better than that?”

Doe-eyed Adora stared back at this other version of herself, blinking her confusion away. She had felt guilt over these thoughts before but had never thought that running was an option. “I… can’t run now. I just got promoted to Force Captain and… I’m so close to living my dream.”

That statement made Adora’s stomach lurch. Maybe she had felt that way once, but hearing it now was unsettling.

“You don’t want to conquer the world, Adora. Not if it means hurting innocent people and leaving Catra behind. Shadow Weaver only wants to use you.”

“How do you know that?” Doe-eyed Adora snapped. Even if she was yet touched by war, she still held that feisty optimism that came with the naivety of being a cadet in the Horde. “Who are you?”

“I know because I’ve seen this all before,” Adora said, glaring back, refusing to back down. “I’ve been  _ here _ , right where you’re standing. Right on the precipice of destiny. And I am telling you, begging you, to not follow through. Because if you turn back now, you will  _ lose _ her... for good.”

The certainty rooted into the older Adora’s voice commanded a stillness so unlike anything this younger, inexperienced Adora had ever felt, a verbal tesseract, the world hinged upon itself.

“Wh...who are you?”

“I’m...you? Or- another version of you? The  _ you _ that you could become.” Even as she said it aloud, the paradox made less sense. “Look- it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you take Catra and you leave the Horde  _ far _ behind. See the world, just like you wanted! Together. And draw your  _ own _ conclusions. Don’t let Shadow Weaver’s teachings tell you what to think, who to be. You have a destiny beyond the Horde. And it’s up to you to find it.” Ugh.  _ Vom. _ Adora hated giving pep-talks. She was pretty much the worst when it came to mushy feelings. That much should’ve been obvious, but somethings just don’t change.

_ This, _ however, could. History untethered, untesselated. The pattern of Adora’s demolished heart deconstructed and reconstructed at will. This Doe-eyed Adora had no idea that she was the very axis of this story, oblivious to the power that had now fallen into her lap.

“... So what if I were to believe you? I’m just supposed to waltz off into the sunset like it’s no big deal? Catra and I can’t exactly take down an entire army. If the Horde were to come after us-”

“Maybe not on your own… or as you are now. But like I said, you have a destiny beyond the Horde, Adora. You just have to  _ find _ it.” Adora’s eyes narrowed. She was so close to getting her younger self to understand. To see what it was she meant.

“You say that like it’s some object lying around.” The younger Adora scoffed, rolling her eyes. As if on cue, a light flashed just off to the side, drawing the attention of both Adoras. The original Adora smirked, a knowing gleam in her gaze as she ushered Doe-eyed Adora forth.

“Go on. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

From beyond the brush, Doe-eyed Adora caught sight of a pile of vines masking the soft, fading glow of an unintelligible object. The whimsically placed foliage and uneven thickness of the overgrowth made the item practically unrecognizable. At least- at first glance. Upon getting closer, Doe-eyed Adora could see the waning iridescence of the blade as it peeked out between the gaps in the vines, enticingly inviting her to grasp the faint impressions of a hilt poking through the plants.

Adora didn’t have to touch the sword herself to know what it was the other her was witnessing. She could see the flashes written across Doe-eyed Adora’s face, clear as could be. The faint circumstances of her place in this world, the path that she was meant to take, the Crystal Castle, and what awaited her inside- or- rather- whom.

  
  


“What…  _ was _ that?” Doe-eyed Adora asked, taking a step away from the sword and all that it entailed. “I-I don’t understand!”

“That is our destiny,” Original Adora said, her eyes sinking in a little as she realized what this really meant. “Or-  _ your _ destiny, rather. You are meant to protect this planet, Adora. You have to honor it…”

“ _ Honor it… _ ” Doe-eyed Adora repeated in a half-hearted mumble, her eyes fixed on the sword. There was a beat of silence between them as the air fell flat between them. But unlike the heavy feeling that had pooled at their feet, the silence was broken by a rather familiar sound. A voice- Catra’s voice- as it tore through the treeline.

“ _ Adoooooooraaaaa! _ ”

Now it was the original Adora’s turn to freeze, tensing like an animal caught in the beams of oncoming headlights. “I can’t be here,” she said, giving no further explanation or reasoning than that. “Make the decision, Adora. Fight for Grayskull. For Catra. For Etheria.”

Just as the older Adora disappeared into the brush, Catra came bursting into the clearing, tackling her Adora down onto the ground and breaking whatever concentration she might’ve had on the sword and this potential destiny of hers.

“Oof- Catra!” She groaned upon impact, sitting up and rubbing her head with a soft pout.

“I found you! I thought I was never gonna find you! Ugh. Shadow Weaver is gonna kill me if we don’t-” Catra’s voice stopped, her purrs caught in her throat as she caught sight of the sword, unlodged from its resting place amongst the vines. “What is...  _ that _ ?”

Before the younger Adora could answer, Catra was already scrambling to her feet, curiously approaching the blade. Doe-eyed Adora opened her mouth to speak, to warn Catra of its powerful illusions, but when Catra touched the hilt, nothing happened. 

“Huh… Weird that someone would abandon this weapon in the middle of the woods,” Catra said before casually swinging it around. The blade felt unbalanced in her own hands, however, and she struggled to stay planted on her feet. “Woah…”

“Here!” Adora said, rushing to Catra’s side almost too eagerly. “L-let me see it.”

Without so much as waiting for Catra to hand the sword over to her, she took it, staring at her own reflection in the oversized blade. There was something so hauntingly familiar about her other self’s words. They bounced around inside her head as she looked onwards, mesmerized by the blade. 

“For the honor… of Grayskull…”

An enchanting light overtook Adora’s form, As her world glistened and warped around her. Startled, Catra fell back and watched helplessly as whatever transformation overtook her best friend, replacing her with an eight-foot-tall behemoth with glowing blonde hair and a tiara.

“What the…” was all that Catra had managed to say, stunned by the sight of this unnamed warrior princess before her. “A...Adora?”

“AAAAA!!!” The sword fell out of Adora’s hand in an instant, and with it, the form dissipated, leaving behind the startled outline of a Horde soldier who was way in over her head.

“Adora,” Catra repeated, still in a state of shock… “You… you’re a… princess?”

“W-what? N-no! **No!** _I…_ ”

“Adora-”

“There’s  _ no way _ I’m a princess-”

“ _ Adora… _ ”

“I can’t be-”

“Adora!” Catra called out, breaking her stumbling excuses for a moment. “It’s… it’s going to be okay… we can  _ fix _ this.”

“Fix this? Catra, you think Shadow Weaver is going to be happy about-”

“Then she doesn’t have to know!” Catra shouted, moving to Adora’s side and taking her hand. “I don’t give a damn what Shadow Weaver thinks. Alright?”

“Catra…” Adora’s gaze softened momentarily before she glanced back into the woods, searching for a trace of her other-self. She knew she wouldn’t find her, that this was her decision alone to make. “We  _ can’t _ go back there. Not anymore.”

Catra’s heart stopped at this profound realization. She wasn’t sure what Adora meant by this, but she could tell that whatever it was, Adora was right. Going back meant risking a world of trouble, and possibly losing her best friend for good. “...then what do we do?”

Adora glanced down at the sword, meeting her own reflection with a rather intense glare before she gave Catra’s hand a determined squeeze.

“Find our own destiny.  _ Together _ .”  



End file.
